A Girl and Her Guide
by BlazingTrail42
Summary: Waking up with no memory of past events, one girl and her guide must rebuild the land, scour the evil, and find the secret that lurks beneath this façade of beauty... Rated T for some darker moments.
1. Chapter 1: New Beginnings

**This is my first fanfiction on this site, so any constructive criticism would be much appreciated!**

WHAM! I slam into the hard, cold ground. Having just fallen onto the ground with no memory of how I got here, I decide that the logical thing to do is to get moving as soon as possible. Who knows what could be happening just beyond my field of sight?

I sit up, and immediately my head explodes. I scream, and fall onto my side. Pain, pain, pain… and still no memory of the previous events. However, my eyes manage to find a fuzzy shape that is getting closer with every passing moment.

"Hey, Ray?" the shape says. "Ray? You OK?"

Rubbing my head, I sit up for the second time, and for some reason the pain ceases. A girl, about the same age as me, is standing next to me. She looks kind of pretty, with long blond hair that's braided down her back.

"Hi. Erm… who are you?" I ask.

She giggles. "My name's April. Do you know where we are?"

"Nope. No idea." I say. "So what do we do?"

We look around. The landscape looks very fresh, with green as far as the eye can see. It appears as if we're at the bottom of a valley, so we can't see very far either side. However, the trees that are growing here are huge, and they look fairly weak. "Should we try and make an axe?"

"OK" says April, and she bends down. When she straightens, in her hand is a sharp rock. "I think this is a flint."

"That can be the head, then. I'll get a stick. Can you find some vines?"

A few minutes later, we have constructed a makeshift tool. The trees that we hit topple very oddly, toppling on top of me, but splitting into tiny fragments that I can easily collect. I notice that April has two backpacks, so we take one each and then I have an idea.

"We should probably make a house before nightfall. I get the feeling that something bad will happen when it gets dark."

So just as darkness begins to fall, April and I have built a house out of wooden planks, and barricaded the door. I discover that, with a flat wooden surface, I can suddenly construct a much larger range of products. I make a table and two chairs, and April and I settle down for some discussions.

"How old are you?" she asks.

"I'm fourteen," I reply.

"Same!" she exclaims.

Suddenly, a thought strikes me. "How did you know my name?"

April looks awkward. "Well… you're my Guide."

"Your what?"

"Guide. I'm not sure how, but… every time I look at you, I think… you're meant to help guide me through whatever comes."

"Well, whatever this means, at least we're not dead. To new beginnings!" I wave an imaginary glass in her direction, and she mimics my action, clinking our hands.

I'm just about to comment when suddenly our barricade explodes. I lurch across the table, tackling April, and pinning her to the floor. No shards of wood come near us, but I hear a moan, and turn around.

Oh no.

_Zombies._


	2. Chapter 2: Blood Moon Madness

Why? I didn't believe that zombies could knock down doors on the first night. I thought they just banged on them until you got so suicidal you opened the door.

Then I glance upwards, and the moon is red.

_Blood moon_

Looking at it, I feel pulled, as if that red moon is the key to my identity, and why my female companion and I were stranded here.

"Look out!" April shouts. I snap out of my trance, pull out a sword and throw my spare to April. We fight side my side, hacking through zombies. When the other door bursts we fight back to back. I don't know why, but both April and I are apparently demons, and in a few minutes all we have are some stains on the walls and a few shackles.

As the sun rises, I reflect on the events of the night. As we repair the building, I tell April about my peculiar feeling.

"Hmm. We shall have to see if there's a pattern to these blood moons" she says.

"Wait. You say it's a blood moon too?" I bend down and examine one of the tattered pieces of zombie clothing.

"Yes… oh. We both call it the same thing." As she realises what this means, suddenly another question pops into my head.

"Where did I get those swords from?"

April doesn't answer. I clear my throat, but she still stays silent. I stand, and turn around.

A slime had managed to get purchase on April's hair and is trying to suffocate her. Grabbing my sword, I swing, but hesitate. If I'd have carried on, I would've decapitated her. Instead I make a few incisions in the slime's… well, slime. It just falls off her head and bounces away. She gasps, and falls over, hands at her throat.

I let her rest for a few minutes, and take the time to go exploring. Venturing into the mouth of a cave on a hillside, I find what appeared to be an ancient-looking chest. Inside it are a few gold coins, a phial of green liquid, some metal bars and a yellow bracelet with holes in it. When I put it on I feel lighter, as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

Suddenly, I feel something on my back. I swing around, sword in hand. When I realise that it is only April, I sag. "Don't scare me like that!"

She doesn't laugh. "There's been a… problem."

If April isn't her usual self, something must be seriously wrong. "What happened?"

"Our house…" she said, then shakes her head. "Two blood moons in a row. They battered down the doors. I wouldn't've made it out alive, if it weren't for the swiftness potion."

A growing sense of dread fills me. "What happened?" I repeat. "Why aren't you in the house?"

She looks at me, and in that instant I realise that she's remembered something about our past.

"There is no house anymore, Ray." she says, confirming my suspicions. "This is our house now."


	3. Chapter 3: How Not to Spelunk

I stagger. "What do you mean?"

She raises her hands. "the zombies… I didn't make it out unscathed…"

Along one of her hands is a huge gash. I just get a chance to look at it for a second before she wilts, collapsing into my arms. She begins to shudder violently.

"Stay with me, stay with me!" I shout, as she convulses in my arms. I somehow know that I have about an hour before her body gives up, before she's lost forever. I lay her down, loop a section of rope around a stalagmite, and then carefully lower myself down into the cavern below.

I need a special type of crystal, I know that much, but I don't know where to find it. Also, what she said "This is our house now"… what did she mean? Perhaps she meant that the cave was where we should stay, but that doesn't make any sense. I'm trying to find another meaning when suddenly the rope snaps. My heart stops, and I scream as I plunge into the unknown.

Luckily for me, there's water beneath me. I plunge in, still screaming, and then feel rather foolish as water sprays from my mouth and runs down my forehead.

And in front of me… a heart crystal. I pause, realise what it is, and then lurch forward and attempt to grab it. Realising I may need a specialised tool, I lay out all of my materials and construct something vaguely resembling a hammer.

With the crystal in my hands, I go for the rope, forget it snapped, and trip, falling into the water again. Time's running out… Quickly, I fashion a lasso, and toss it upward. It snags on something, and suddenly I'm at the top, swinging Indiana Jones-style from it. Within a matter of minutes, I'm by April's side.

For a moment, I'm terrified that I am too late. But then a spasm wracks her body, and without hesitating I scoop her over my shoulder and run up to the surface.

"the… lab…" she mutters, before lapsing back into unconsciousness.

When I reach the house, I realise what she meant earlier. It's still a house, but it has broken walls, there are scratches down the doors, and the window frames have fallen out. However, when I push open the door, someone's sitting at the table.

It's another girl, and she looks a lot like April. She's wearing a red shirt with jeans, and she doesn't look very medical. But somehow I immediately know that she is a nurse.

"Um… who are you?" she says.

"It doesn't matter" I reply. "Can you save her?"

"Slow down. What happened?"

"Zombie bite."

She smiles. "That's easy! All I need are a few healing items."

"What do you need?"

She thinks for a moment. "A mushroom… some daybloom… and also a bottle."

In a few minutes I have all of them. There was a bottle that used to hold the swiftness potion, and the rest were just outside. She fills the bottle with water, adds the two plants, and it turns a deep red. She pours it down April's throat, and she begins to shudder again. Her eyes roll back, and then… she's still.

"My name's Freja, by the way. Named for the goddess of love." she says. She extends her hand, and I grasp it and shake.

"Ray Mann. Named for the videogame character. Pleased to meet you."

April groans, rubs her head, and then she sits up. "What happened? I remember the blood moons, and the bite, and…" she trails off, and a look of horror dawns upon her face.

"April?" I ask, tapping her on the shoulder.

"The lab…" she says. Turning to face me directly, she continues: "You were there, Ray…"

_The lab…_

_"__Are you ready?"_

_I grip the arms of my seat. "Yes." I know that, after this, I won't remember who I am, what I'm doing, and who else will come in after me. I look over at April, who's sweating. It appears that she's not entirely accepting of this experiment either._

_Doc- at least that's what we call him- walks over and adjusts my headset. I feel him slipping something into my trouser pocket. "The process won't be permanent. Within a few weeks, you'll remember everything. Good luck."_

_Then a switch is thrown… and everything goes black._

**A/N: Updated!**


	4. Chapter 4: The Crimson

I'm brought back to reality by Freja snapping her fingers under my nose. "April? You OK?"

"The lab…" I watch as she digs into his pocket, pulling out a crumpled slip of paper with a mini flourish. She unfolds it, and Ray and I crowd around her to read it.

It looks to be a printout from some sort of machine. It has a list of numbers on it, and all of them seem random until I notice the words written alongside them.

_Purity: 7%. Crimson: 4%, Jungle 10%, Ocean 4%..._

It's listing biomes.

Suddenly I realise something. This is an experiment. I look over at Ray, who seems to have come to a similar conclusion. "What do you think we should do?" I ask him.

"What we've always done," he replies. "Survive." He places something on the table. "Do you have any diea what this does?"

Freja nods, and pulls a length of string out of her pocket. "I think, if you make a necklace out of it, it helps you endure more damage. I seem to remember something along those lines."

I take the crystal from Ray's hands. When I place it on the string, it glows red for a moment. And when I put it around my neck, everything turns white for an instant.

"April? You alright?" Ray asks. I shake myself.

"Yeah, sorry. So, what now?"

===Ray===

"I think we need better equipment. Armour, swords, picks… I'll go and get some iron. D'you want to come along, or stay here?" I ask them both.

"I think I'll go and look for some herbs," says Freja. "Since you two have a knack for getting yourself injured, I may as well be prepared." She smiles.

April smiles too. "I'll come with you. I could do with a distraction from the voices…"

"What?" Freja and I answer at the same time.

"Oh, nothing. Come on!" She grabs my hand, and, after shooting a bewildered look at Freja, I comply and run after her.

Down in the mines, I'm mining some iron when April shouts across to me, "Why do you think we're here?"

"I don't know," I answer, truthfully. "Something about an experiment. We both remembered the lab. And that readout… wait, what's this?"

April's by my side in an instant, and we both look at the red moss on the stone behind the iron. "Maybe it's something herbal?"

"No…" April sounds different, hoarser. I snap my fingers under her gaze at the moss.

"April? You're being weird." She reaches out a hand to touch it. When her fingertip hovers above it, it looks like the moss is reaching up to touch her…

"No!" I shout, tackling her and sending both of us sprawling backwards. She rolls over, presses me down, and shoves her hand into my chin. I feel it click. In the time it takes me to get back up and regain my ability to talk, she's run down a dark cavern adjacent to the crimson moss.

_Crimson…_

_"__You can't let her go near the crimson…."_

A memory bobs to the top of my head like a diver who has let go of his weights. Somehow I know she's in danger, and against my better judgement, I grab a torch off the wall and follow her into the unknown.

After about half an hour of searching, I find her crouched next to a strange fleshy construction. She's on her knees, hands clasped together, shaking like a jelly in an earthquake. She turns around, and her eyes are red, blood red, the type of red that's deeper, deeper than crimson, and…

I start running. I don't turn back.

**A/N: That was dark. But sorry, life caught up with me, but I'm back. I'll try and do weekly updates, but I have a set of important exams approaching so please don't hate on me. **

**Also, I'm running a little competition of sorts! Send your ideas for an original NPC, what they do, and how they are going to be introduced. **

**Name**

**Age**

**Job**

**Introductory passage**

**If I like it, it'll be featured in the next chapter! Stay awesome!**


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